Michael A. Shepperd News

Discover the compelling play 'Blood at the Root' by Dominique Morisseau at Open Fist Theatre Company. Don't miss out on this gripping production - find out more here.

What did our critic think of CLYDE'S at Arkansas Repertory Theatre? Y’all! Never have I ever wanted to hang out with criminals as much as I did while watching CLYDE’S at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 601 Main St, in Little Rock, which is being performed now through June 25th. Direct from Broadway, CLYDE’S is a new play by Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage and Directed by Josiah Davis. This play will make you laugh, your heart will hurt a little, and you will leave hungry even if you already ate before you got there.  

Alabama Shakespeare Festival presents the Tony Award-nominated comedy Clyde's, opening May 12 and running through May 28 on the Octagon Stage in partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative and Arkansas Repertory Theatre.

The Arkansas Repertory Theatre has announced that tickets are on sale to its production of “Clyde's.” The production will run for three weeks at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre. 

Actors Theatre welcomes back the award-winning ensemble UNIVERSES (Ameriville, Slanguage, Rhythmicity) for a kinetic mix of poetry, jazz, blues, hip-hop, boleros, salsa, and storytelling. Party People is a dynamic performance that illuminates the complex legacy of these revolutionary movements, and the potential for cross-cultural coalitions to bring power to the people. Performances are in the Pamela Brown Auditorium April 5-16, 2023.

The Stage Raw Theater Awards celebrate excellence on Los Angeles-area stages. This year's Stage Raw “I'm Still Here” Theater Awards Party will recognize productions that opened in the calendar year 2022.

Alessandra Assaf, who enacts the Hollywood icon in 12 O’CLOCK TALES WITH AVA GARDNER, the play she has written with Michael Lorre, brings out all of the actress’s fire, charisma and messiness.

Twelve O’Clock Tales with Ava Gardner, written by Alessandra Assaf and Michael Lorre, directed by Michael A. Shepperd and starring Assaf in the title role, opened at the Whitefire Theatre last weekend. Check out photos from the production here!

Alessandra Assaf has taken her life-long admiration for Ava Gardner and fashioned a love letter to her in her one-woman show Twelve O’Clock Tales with Ava Gardner opening at the Whitefire Theatre January 15, 2023. This tale of the silver screen icon is directed by Michael A. Shepperd.

Movie star. Femme fatale. Homewrecker. Civil Rights activist. The Whitefire Theatre plays host to a new solo play that reveals the contradictions and complexities of the passionate and deeply flawed woman behind silver screen icon Ava Gardner.

VALLEY SONG by South African master playwright Athol Fugard is two-actor, three-character play in which Michael A. Shepperd takes on the roles of Abraam Jonkers, a mixed- race old man who has been a pumpkin farmer his entire life, and The Author, a White man who wants to buy the land where Abraam lives and works, potentially leaving him homeless. And since these roles were originally doubled by Fugard himself, I decided to speak with Michael A. Shepperd about preparing for such a challenging artistic endeavor.

A young girl seeks the courage to embrace the future while her grandfather searches for the wisdom to let go of the past. International City Theatre presents Valley Song, a poignant and hope-filled coming-of-age story by South African master playwright Athol Fugard.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM is given a fresh spin by the Open Fist Theatre Company, changing the setting from Athens, Greece, to Athens, Georgia, in the antebellum South to mixed results.

Director/choreographer James Fowler has moved his Open Fist Theatre Company production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream from Athens, Greece to Athens, Georgia circa 1855, where Shakespeare’s text remains intact, but casting and design land us in the world of the Antebellum South.

On Veterans’ Day - November 11 - at 7pm, New Musicals Inc is hosting a special online concert to help celebrate the day and pay respect to veterans around the world. The free concert will feature excerpts from the musical webseries, “So Proudly We Hailed” which honors veterans by dramatizing and musicalizing their story in their own words.

Los Angeles' Celebration Theatre has fired Artistic Director Michael A. Shepperd following allegations of sexual misconduct. 

Antaeus Theatre Company launches their second season of their popular podcasts THE ZIP CODE PLAYS: LOS ANGELES May 20, 2021. Each play, set in six different L.A. zip codes, features acclaimed Antaeus actors enacting scripts written by members of the Antaeus Playwright Lab. Two-time Audiofile Award-winner Ramón de Ocampo reprises his role of series host, with Jeff Gardner and Ellen Mandel returning in their respective roles as audio producer/sound designer/foley artist and music composer.

Antaeus Theatre Company highlights the culture and history of six additional Los Angeles neighborhoods with Season Two of its popular 'The Zip Code Plays: Los Angeles' podcast series, set to launch May 20. Here are my interviews with the four female directors who discuss their own personal histories within the Zip Code Plays they direct. (Gigi Bermingham, Jennifer Chang, Saundra McClain, and Bernadette Speakes)

Antaeus Theatre Company is highlighting the culture and history of six additional Los Angeles neighborhoods with Season Two of its “The Zip Code Plays: Los Angeles” podcast series, set to launch May 20.

Ucross, a prestigious artist residency program and creative laboratory for the arts in Wyoming, and The Blank Theatre, a Los Angeles institution celebrating 31 years of imaginative theatre, today announced the winners of the newly created Ucross + The Blank Theatre Future of Playwriting Prize, a one-of-a-kind award for young playwrights nationwide.